(11-07) 10:35 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- City College of San Francisco got some rare, good financial news Tuesday as local voters approved a parcel tax to benefit the huge school of 86,000 students and state voters approved a tax increase measure for schools that will help steer the college away from bankruptcy.

Administrators, faculty and students have been counting on both measures to keep the college from financial ruin:

-- Proposition 30, the statewide tax measure backed by Gov. Jerry Brown, will prevent automatic spending cuts to higher education, public schools and other state programs. Failure would have immediately cost City College $10.3 million in state funding, college officials said. The measure needed a simple majority, and clearly surpassed that with 99 percent of state precincts reporting.

-- San Francisco's Prop. A will assess $79 per parcel on property owners to raise about $14 million a year for the college, expiring in eight years. The measure exceeded the necessary two-thirds vote of approval.

Passage of Prop. A alone "would buy the college one more year," said Peter Goldstein, the college's vice chancellor for finance.

College officials and students were more than pleased with the election results.

"San Francisco voters have once again shown their support for City College, and we're very, very grateful," said Larry Kamer, the college spokesman.

William Walker, the college's student trustee, said it was "wonderful" that city voters supported City College, which "continues to be vital because we're the largest workforce trainer in San Francisco."

A tireless campaigner for both measures, Walker ran for a seat on the board with full voting privileges on Tuesday's ballot but lost. However, he'll retain his nonvoting seat.

The threat of bankruptcy is just one of the critical problems City College faces. The school could be forced to close next year unless it can correct a list of deficiencies and operating problems, including a pattern of overspending, that threaten its accreditation.

City College has until March 15 to prove to an accrediting commission that it should stay in business.

Passage of both tax measures would best help their efforts to stay open and viable, college officials said. But they acknowledge that they face daunting financial troubles, no matter what happens at the ballot box.

With both measures passing, college officials say they can make it through the next two years, postponing course reductions, layoffs and employee givebacks. But two major financial pressures would sponge up a large portion of the tax bounty:

-- A ballooning retiree health obligation for which the college needs to sock away $7 million a year. This year officials set aside just $500,000.

-- A skeletal reserve fund that won't reach a safe level of $10 million until 2015. It has less than half that amount now.

If both measures had failed, City College could have gone bankrupt without a state bailout. It would have lost $11.5 million this year alone, with the losses more than doubling to nearly $25 million next year, according to the Fiscal Crisis Team.

The city's Libertarian Party cited the accreditation woes in its ballot argument against Prop. A, noting that City College spends an unusually high 92 percent of its budget on salaries and benefits.

College officials say new spending priorities are key to the survival of a school that has benefited most city residents and propels thousands of low-income students into the middle class.